A Boulder judge has ruled that documents in the case against a 16-year-old accused of severely beating a Lefthand Canyon woman will be made available to the public except for future filings relating to the teen's efforts to get his case transferred back to juvenile court.

Chief Boulder District Judge Maria Berkenkotter issued the ruling Tuesday, writing that Jeffrey Collins and his attorney did not meet the burden required to grant his request to seal the case.

"The court holds that in order to seal the entire file from the public, the defendant would have to establish an overriding and compelling reason to do so," Berkenotter wrote in her 12-page ruling. "The court finds that he has not met this burden."

While Berkenkotter's ruling to unseal the case was made immediately available, she put a two-week stay on the rest of the documents in the case to give the parties time decide whether to appeal her ruling.

Berkenkotter also instructed the attorneys to talk as the case progresses and consider asking the court to unseal documents that do not contain "highly sensitive information."

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Without any such unsealing orders, documents relating to Collins' hearing to have his case transferred back to juvenile court will remain under seal until the judge rules on the defendant's request to transfer the case.

"Specifically, these pleadings and any attachments thereto are likely to involve highly sensitive information, including, potentially, medical records and mental health records, as well as other highly confidential information," Berkenkotter wrote. "The court holds that with respect to this narrow category of pleadings, unrestricted access would pose a substantial probability of harm to the fairness of the trial, which substantially outweighs the defendant's right to a public trial."

Berkenkotter said the seal on the narrow category of documents was the only option that did not involve individual assessment of every document filed in the case, a process that would be "unwieldy, time consuming and — far more importantly for purposes of the court's constitutional analysis — could lead to disclosure of highly sensitive and/or confidential material prior to the court having the opportunity to exercise its gatekeeping role as to such information."

Collins — who was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and felony assault on an at-risk person — is scheduled for a "reverse transfer" hearing on Feb. 1, at which time his attorneys will argue the case be moved back to juvenile court.

After defense attorney Zak Malkinson filed the motion asking that everything in the case be sealed until that hearing, Berkenkotter placed a temporary seal on the case. She also ordered the Daily Camera not to publish an arrest warrant the newspaper had obtained after Malkinson's motion was filed, but before Berkenotter's temporary seal was put in place.

In her most recent order, Berkenkotter wrote that, "While the interim order sealing the entire file was initially necessary to allow the parties to fully brief the motion to seal and for the court to rule on those issues, the court holds that an ongoing order to that effect would not comport with the First Amendment. The court specifically holds that the pleadings and exhibits filed to date will not jeopardize the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial."

Boulder County sheriff's investigators say Collins attacked 71-year-old Katie Kulpa on Sept. 19 with a fire poker at her Lefthand Canyon home after she had picked up Collins and two friends while they were hitchhiking in the area.

She suffered a skull fracture and numerous lacerations on her head.

According to the affidavit, Collins told detectives the attack was a friend's idea, and that he was drunk and "stoned as hell" at the time.

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